As Keith Martin is fond of saying rare doesn’t always mean valuable.

That car would be a labor of love, not sense.

Ask yourself this - if you had $7,000 in your pocket right now would you still even be looking at it?

It has the seats but no plaque? It’s a non interference motor so no harm in trying to start it. Try quick start all the injection will need to be gone though good luck

What should I haggle him down to? What is the most you would pay for them? And yes, they're still there.

I want to chime in on this thread.

I would not buy the 924 if I were you. My first Porsche was a 79 924. It was a money pit, and was off the road more than it was on the road. And that was when it 6 years old. The engine is from an Audi Fox, and was the worst engine Audi ever built, the torque tube ate pilot bearings like candy, the brakes were $hit, the handling sucked... it was just a cheap pos. Porsche fixed almost all of the issues with the 944. About 10 years ago, I got offered a 924 Turbo for free. I passed on it without a second thought.


If I were in your situation, I would find a first generation Boxster (or better yet, a Boxster S) with a blown motor due to the IMS bearing issue. I have seen them going for $1500.00, complete with the blown motor because it is too expensive to fix them.

Scrap the motor, and replace it with a Subaru 6 cylinder. It would probably be as much work as the 924 to do the engine conversion, but you end up with a much better car when you are done.

Just my $.02.

Clay

This, all day long.

I like 924s, 944s, and 968s, but none of them have what I would call a charismatic engine, or particularly "Porsche" handling. I'd much rather have a great E30 with in inline six than any of the above save a select few models that are well out of reach (924 GTS/CS, 968 Turbo RS, etc).

Whereas I have not met a 986 manual that wasn't a blast to drive. 986 with a replacement engine or some sort of conversion is a great idea—far better than trying to resurrect a 924 that needs everything—including paint and an interior too. And a 986 with Euro M030 suspension, which is not expensive (particularly if you have to refresh the suspension anyway) is a pretty good approximation of the 987.2 Boxster Spyder—one of the best-handling analog road cars Porsche ever made. My old 986 was reliable from 60,000 to 100,000 miles, and now has 230,000 miles on its original 2.5. They're good cars, imo, with known flaws—but those flaws are better than dealing with rust, paint, etc. in my view.

Or buy the 924, put it in your garage and you can say you have a Porsche. Then get a Honda or Subaru as a daily driver and call it a day.

Are 986s difficult for the home mechanic to work on? Could I replace the IMS at home?

Yes no problem at home if you can do basic wrenching

Youtube is your best bet here, I'd spend an hour or so watching a few videos.

I did a search for "diy 986 repair"

Plenty of helpful videos (and watching a 996 IMS video wouldn't hurt )
Some show what special tools needed and alternative tools/hacks.


Figure minimum $500 for each basic repair, and that is parts only.

Not to dissuade you from the M96 flat six, but an Audi V8 bolts up to the 986S transmission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsuC7nPdXZg

And there's always adapters for an LS V8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P67OSN2DqAE

And there are other choices, as some here have noted. Subaru flat sixes and flat fours (the 2.5 STi sounds and goes like 2/3s of a 996 Turbo engine…). Nice thing is that the 986 already has the radiators and cooling system figured out.

So, $1500 for a 924 that needs everything, or a nice 986 that just needs an engine—whether another Porsche flat six or something else entirely?

What is the most you would pay for them? What is the "break even" price?

Even if those cars are free, you will be spending money just to get them to your place. Depending how long ago they have been registered back fees could cost more than the car.

A car like those 2 would be a labor of love, you might never break even on them unless you get lucky. Some people are okay with that. My 914 will never be worth 1/4 of what I have put into it in the last 2 years.

I would buy them and part them out. There should be 3k in parts. You'll learn a bunch taking them apart and double your money. If you like the 924 make 1 good one out of the 2.

I bought a 914 pretty cheap but it needed some work. You can still find deals out there. Someone is selling a solid roller for 500 on this forum.

Not really. There will probably be transport fees. It takes a lot of time to part out a car, sell the parts and ship. Then you still have to get rid of the chassis, if not the trans and engines as well.
When I worked at the Porsche shop, we got offered cars like that all the time. Usually for free because someone had thought the same thing, the cars sat around for years and then they had to get rid of them. They just wanted us to pick them up.
Got a running 928 for free. We needed the parts for a 928 track car with a built LS3. If we didn't need specific parts, it wouldn't have been worth the free price.

https://longisland.craigslist.org/cto/d/sou...7196987566.html

I bet he is getting more requests to buy the MR2.

I always like the Martini 924. I remember seeing them at the dealer back in Florida when I was 16 years old and they were hot off the boat. I thought the orange color carpet was wild. I also like the 79 Sebring limited.

I would get that thing driving and just leave it as is, as they say its only original once.